This is Home

With them I find familiarity,
A place where I can go
For strength and love unfailing
And laughter all its own.

With them I can listen
To us sitting all around,
And I bask in the silence
Of each concentrated frown.

Without them I remember
All our road trips to the coast,
Each beach house blurring with the next,
Dave's monster story more vivid than most.

Without them I get homesick
For Oldies name-that-tune,
For the Garfield glasses filled with milk,
Graham crackers gone too soon.

Without them I have built myself
On all the things they taught––
Without them it's not hard to think
They never left at all.